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Whole30: Days 3 & 4

Today was the first time that I missed the option of a beer. Work was hard and I was done for the day. The kids were being kids. Dinner was amazing. A beer was the only thing lacking.

It probably didn’t help that I read a chapter out of a homebrewing book to de-stress from work today. While I can follow a recipe, I’m treating myself as a novice so I can step back and try to build up a solid knowledge of brewing.

Professionally, I’m a geek and all of my programming knowledge I learned approximately 15 seconds before I needed to apply it. While I’m pretty good, I feel, I’m still inefficient at times teaching myself advanced topics that would help with better coverage of the more fundamental elements.

On to the topic of Whole 30 and alcohol, long-term, I am not willing to do a diet near to this. The “booze edition” of their advice column on the Whole30 site eliminates my first paragraph as improper rationale and provides a suggestion that it is okay “if the beverage is so incredibly delicious and you enjoy it so very much that it’s absolutely worth it to indulge”.

I can get behind the closing paragraph of the first answer:

Our general rule for building any off-plan food or drink into life after your Whole30: always make a conscious, deliberate decision to indulge—no mindlessly reaching for the wine after work, or grabbing a beer at the cookout.

In our beer circles, the experience of the beer—the elements of the tasting, discussion of sourcing (shout out to Simon and his Trellis to Table podcast on hop agriculture and related topics), the social aspects of sharing—is more important than the quantity of beer consumed. Tasting three beers for a total of 12 oz is usually more enjoyable than actually having three separate 12 oz beers.

Beer isn’t usually considered a health food, but it can be “part of a healthy diet” especially if we’re deliberate about how we make it a part of our lifestyles.